War in Afghanistan

Image via Wikipedia

Today in the News US President Obama said progress was sufficient to permit a "responsible reduction" of US forces to begin in July.

I'd like to ask what progress? Afghanistan still is by far the worlds largest producer of opium and has the 2nd most corrupt government in the world. Transparency International rates only one country, Somalia, as worse.

The cornerstone of the coalition strategy in Afghanistan calls for the Afghan government to eventually take over security and to provide stronger government institutions and services. How can this happen though in a country where the police set up checkpoints and stop cars demanding payment for permission to pass. In 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay approximately US$ 2.5 billion in bribes, which is equivalent to 23 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).… Continues …

Image via Wikipedia

• The Top Brass in English Defence, General Sir David Richards (Former NATO commander) has announced what we all had a fair idea about for quite a while.  Afghanistan can not be defeated, but merely controlled.  We didn't really need this gentleman to tell us this, since we have watched Afghanistan beat the tails off the Soviets, only that time they were funded by America.

• In keeping with The Governments new fondness for anything that starts with "Big Business", they have decided to bring in McDonalds and PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo to the "heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease." I am pretty certain they are fattening us up for something.

Not even two weeks after classified documents released by Wikileaks made many people question the validity of the war in Afghanistan, here comes powerful new evidence of something worth fighting for.

A fiery controversy has been stirred up by a magazine cover photo depicting a beautiful young Afghan woman who has had her nose and ears cut off by the Taliban. Accompanied by the bold statement "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan", some are now decrying the use of the shocking image as a manipulative effort to convince the public to accept continuing military action. Some are even calling it "war porn" and "Afghansploitation". Priyamvada Gopal at the Guardian says that the magazine cover is an oversimplification which does nothing to help solve a complex problem. According to Gopal, "Feminists have long argued that invoking the condition of women to justify occupation is a cynical ploy, and the Time cover already stands accused of it."

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

As the longest war in American history plods along in its ninth year, whistleblowing site Wikileaks has released thousands of pages of classified documents relating to the conflict in Afghanistan, which have subsequently been summarized and published by the New York Times and other online newspapers. The Guardian is calling it "the biggest leak in intelligence history."… Continues …